I don’t know if anyone has flown to China before, but it’s a long 15 hour flight. In coach there are 3 seats on the sides, and 4 seats in the middle of the plane; 10 seats per row. In first class, 12 individuals have their own reclining chair (that reclines into a bed) with a large personal television, hot meals, and wonderful in-flight service. I happened to be one of those lucky twelve (win!).
After eating a three course dinner (which was pretty good for airplane food), watching hours of How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock, and finally seeing the movie Country Strong, the plane landed in the Hong Kong International Airport. I took a tram from my terminal to the main hub of the airport, where I bought a ticket for a ferry headed towards Shenzhen, in mainland China. Conveniently, all the employees I came into contact with at the Hong Kong Airport spoke English pretty well, so buying a ticket and exchanging currency to Hong Kong dollars was easy. Before I hopped on the ferry for the 30 minute ride to Shenzhen, I stopped by the Starbucks in the airport and grabbed a coffee—which, by the way, tastes TOTALLY different in China…it will take some time to get used to L.
Upon arriving at the Shenzhen dock, I was met by Neal, my host for the first couple of days. We grabbed a taxi and went through downtown Shenzhen (a quite happening place) to a Sichuan restaurant. We met up with Neal’s wife, her friend Michelle, and a guy named Jamon. The meal consisted of tea and different kinds of fish and beef, but the first bites of the meal I took were chicken’s feet—and they weren’t half bad! After trying all the different spicy foods, Michelle dropped us off at Neal’s apartment. I got settled in, watched Neal rock out on his electric guitar and learned a little bit about his wife’s family history about how she worked/studied her way out of her hometown to come to Shenzhen.
It feels great to be all showered up, and I can’t wait for tomorrow when we go to the markets…oh, and I was told that there are Starbucks at almost every corner in Shenzhen; my wallet might be hurting on this trip.
-Alex
That's cool! Mrs. Denesha (the reading teacher, you know her...right?) just shared about her trip to China that she took in April yesterday! She told us that she had chicken feet, and pig ears.(Not the kinds that we give to the dogs as treats!) I miss you! :)
ReplyDeleteThat's great! Did she say if she liked the chicken feet?
ReplyDeleteMiss you too Livvers!